Boat Operator licensing &/or Self Certification

A couple recent conversations and information from meetings i’ve attended.

Would you as an angler take your time and spend a few dollars to go through a DNR AIS Training, if that allowed you unfettered access thru any gates and or inspections at ramps?

Would you or what would it take for you to be in favor of licensing of ALL boat/watercraft operators?

The Watercraft Operator Licensing would as this proposal was offered give the DNR the teeth in the law to yank licenses for infractions of the law similar to a drivers license or snowmobile license.

This is all looking at more restrictions of some type coming, and looking for fresh ideas at slowing or preventing AIS.

I’ll bring your ideas to the groups proposing some of these ideas.

“Would you as an angler take your time and spend a few dollars to go through a DNR AIS Training, if that allowed you unfettered access thru any gates and or inspections at ramps?”

As an out of state angler, I would want to know just how such training would be handled for non-residents? Would we have to attend a scheduled class somewhere? Would the class and certificate be available to take on-line? How often would we have to be re-certified? I guess I’d have a lot of questions before I could voice an opinion either way.

I am not opposed to the thought behind it but would certainly not be in favor of it being so inconvenient as to make me reconsider making trips to MN.

X2

Anyone know how to boil a live frog so it doesn’t keep jumping out of the water?

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Anyone know how to boil a live frog so it doesn’t keep jumping out of the water?

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Nice! And good point! We’re half way there.

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Anyone know how to boil a live frog so it doesn’t keep jumping out of the water?

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I know your point BK,

start with room temp water and heat it slowly, frog with stay seated and boil to death.

Just like some of the Proposed ideas.

This sounds pretty darn liberal and more Gov’t control. NO THANKS!!

An online AIS awareness test annually would be ideal..with a decal assigned to each registered boat trailer.

As far as licensing all boat operators…FTS!

No more licenses,fee or taxs!

Like Jetdriver said – Just a disguise for another annual fee (tax) for all boat owners.

Canada does its boater safety on-line. You have to have “the card” when out in your boat. If MN goes this way, I believe boater safety and AIS should all be one in the same. I may be able to buy into this a bit more then.
The DNR could then make the boater/test takers know something about driving in your own lane, how to stay so many feet from an anchored fisherman (as they race by), age limits for driving big motors, what green and red cans mean, and then toss in something about knowing how to pull your plug, checking for weeds, cleaning your boat etc., etc. (like the gun/hunter safety exam).
If it were something like this, I could digest it, but NOT just AIS.
There’s no cure for AIS!
Splitshot

This is s slippery slope – enforcement is the problem.

I have suggested a permit / training session for City of Minneapolis and require a permit for watercraft to enter lake –

Once you have permit – you can go in and out. Training required along with a log book – to be maintained, on-line.

Question – is permit only for the boat it is attached or can you be in any boat you want – once you have a permit?

I vote for a permit for each boat….

This is going to get complicated….once we give in. The alternative – losing freedoms stinks.

In state or out of state – doesn’t matter. Boat floats in MN – needs to comply….

Dog

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The DNR could then make the boater/test takers know something about driving in your own lane, how to stay so many feet from an anchored fisherman (as they race by), age limits for driving big motors, what green and red cans mean, and then toss in something about knowing how to pull your plug, checking for weeds, cleaning your boat etc., etc. (like the gun/hunter safety exam).

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Just like getting your drivers license, we all know how many great drivers that we have on our roads and how they follow all the rules of the road.

I would just like to see some good science that clearly shows any of these actions will make a difference in the spread of AIS. Last week I had a DNR guy at a ramp tell me birds do not spread these seeds, his statement was “If ducks spread AIS the only lakes affected would be on the major flyways” We all know of small lakes and ponds with no access for boats that are full of Eurasian Milfoil if not birds then how? The only thing I am convinced of is this whole movement is driven by the desire to make lakes private by making it so difficult to access them that we will simply give up and go somewhere else, you only have to look at the gating of lake accesses in the Cities as proof of this.

Maybe just like a drivers license there should be different classes of boating licenses. The bigger the boat the more stringent the requirements for the license. Just because you fit int he seat of a semi truck does not mean your are qualified to drive it.

So what would they tie any AIS training to? It would have to be a boating license. No license and no driving any boat for you. AIS training sure wouldnt work adding it to a fishing or hunting license. Wouldnt even work adding it to boat registration as registration has no bearing on who is hauling the boat around or using it.

With that said Im against a boating license. Dont need to give who ever anymore teeth to try and ruin my day on the water. Give us a license so they can take it away for some reason and then I can go back to my old hobby of taking up space on a bar stool.

No. No. No. on this.

This is just a thought but maybe they could put money towards eradication of AIS. That seems like a more permanent solution.

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Maybe just like a drivers license there should be different classes of boating licenses. The bigger the boat the more stringent the requirements for the license. Just because you fit int he seat of a semi truck does not mean your are qualified to drive it.

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What does boat size have to do with it? I have a “cabin cruiser” fully rigged up for fishing. Yes I fish the great lakes. Yes I fish some inland waters. But I try my hardest not to transport ais. Do I transport it, I hope not, but how can I know. Is it in my i/o I have no clue…

What about the lampry that fell off a sturgon and ended up swiming around in my bilige on the st croix last week? I pulled the plug but the bugger was just to fat to come out the plug hole? It took a half hour to get it out.

Like I say not all “big” boats are the issue.

Maybe it should just be idiot boat owners that need this……..

Sorry for the rant but last I heard profiling isn’t an American way

Maybe it should just be idiot boat owners that need this……..

Mike. I think you have come up with the solution.

Okay if we are going to regulate according to boat size there should be a special designation for larger fishing vessels to keep them separate from the idiot tuna boat owners.

Sidebar:

Lamprey’s of the Croix are indigenous to MN and not considered AIS.

Back to regulating idiots.

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Sidebar:

Lamprey’s of the Croix are indigenous to MN and not considered AIS.

Back to regulating idiots.

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True, but are they native to mille lacs?

Thinking about it, ais could be anything. Anyone want sturgon in mille lacs?

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Sidebar:

Lamprey’s of the Croix are indigenous to MN and not considered AIS.

Back to regulating idiots.

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True, but are they native to mille lacs?

Thinking about it, ais could be anything. Anyone want sturgon in mille lacs?

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Don’t know about Lamperey’s but…..

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An 89 lb sturgeon was was netted in 2004, but there have been no reports before or after of sturgeon in the lake. If I remember correctly, the fish was full of eggs and was released after pictures were taken. Here’s the only link I could find:
http://www.millelacsmessenger.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=11123&SectionID=21&SubSectionID=48&S=1

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Fish will find a way.

Idiot boat owners imho isn’t what I ment exactly. Just about anyone here on ido is already educated to ais. We care enough about the waters we fish that we spend hours on sites like this doing research. I would bet my boat on it that anyone reading this post, isn’t the problem.

The problem falls with the few who don’t care enough to educate them selfs as to the threats. As far as I know if you were to buy a boat, you can put it in the water with no clue what to do. Maybe a regulations book should be given when you register your boat. Maybe registrations whole only last 1 year, kind of like a fishing license.

But then again does the problem occur only by boats, big or small?

Imho I see 2 situations with ais. 1 is humans can’t stop what they started and maybe in the future we have a global fishery here in mn or 2 we find a way to control ais with poison or what not.

On a side note I wonder what China will do to the walleyes that are invading their waters?

Before anybody dumps more taxes disguised as fee’s on me I want proof. Show me proof that these exotics will destroy the ecosystem of all the lakes and rivers. Seems I heard the same thing about Milfoil 15 years ago. Today I have heard lots of people saying lots of things. I have read lots of things written by people who don’t have a clue.
Anybody remember the name of the exotic that was going to decimate Lake Erie? Yes, the same Lake Erie they pull 12# Walleyes and 6# Small-mouth from.

Call me skeptical, but I want scientific proof, then I want ALL WATERCRAFT treated the same. I don’t want exemptions for the Great Lakes, I don’t want exemptions for boats that never leave a particular lake. I don’t want exemptions for canoes or jet ski’s.

Tax one, tax them all.

Why tax boat owners? Better plan let’s form a class action lawsuit against any company that can be traced to bringing them here in the first place… But then we have another problem, and that is the non native fish that most people want around. Think brown and rainbow trout. What about muskys how many lakes have they been planted at, now what’s differs a musky or a trout, and a mussel?

So your saying the barges that are hauling sand and water from the pool 4 (an ais cesspool) construction site to be able to off load this sand and water by obtaining a permit?

2 more years…let’s hope we can make it that long.